Deception, champagne, and Michelangelos collide in a World Premiere comedy about the discovery of a lost masterpiece



August 23 - September 7

By JESSICA PROVENZ
Directed by MICHELLE JOYNER

ABOUT THE PLAY

In this suspenseful World Premiere comedy, a wide-eyed art history major takes a job at a prominent museum and soon discovers that her infamously no-nonsense boss isn't the only potential shark in the pond of curators, board directors, and dealers. Now she must navigate a quick-witted game of deception, while deciphering who to trust and questioning everything she knows about art, truth, and her own ambition.

TRUE ART is a world premiere that I am thrilled to be helming at The Dorset Theatre Festival! To me the central question in this very funny new play is a more serious one: After fighting her way to the top of her field, to what lengths will an older, powerful woman go when faced with encroaching ageism and irrelevance? Does she become the thing she fought against on her rise up? Will she reach out a hand to lift up a young woman who is at the beginning of her career journey? We’re all excited to dive into the heady world of art and provenance, commerce and perception, and office politics at the most famous museum in the country. Join us!
— Michelle Joyner, Director

Check out this inside look at the World Premiere of TRUE ART in Berkshire Magazine

MEET THE CAST

  • Bob has been entertaining New York audiences for over 50 years, as in the recent Rock and Roll Man, Bells Are Ringing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Die Mommie Die, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and many, many others. Over 30 regional theatres such as Arizona Theatre Co., Cleveland Playhouse, George Street, Walnut Street Playhouse, The Wilma, A.C.T., and the New Jersey and Utah Shakespeare Festivals. U.S. tour of Frost/Nixon and a U.S.O. tour of Guys & Dolls. On television, Bob has been on Manifest, Elementary, Madame Secretary, The Onion News Network, and many, many more including all three Law & Orders. Films include Two Lovers, Kissing Jessica Stein, Wanted, and the recent Bleecker. Training: Carnegie-Mellon, Moscow Art Theatre School, and The Groundlings. Much thanks to Ken, Zach and Angelina at Bret Adams.

  • Jayne Atkinson has been delighting audiences for over three decades. Her work includes major theatre productions, feature films and being part of some of the most well known and award winning television of the last 20 years. 

    Her feature credits include Free Willy 1 and 2, The Village, Syriana and Baby Ruby opposite Kit Harrington which is currently streaming on Hulu. 

    On television Jayne played the iconic role of Cathy Durant on the mega-hit Netflix series House of Cards in addition to series long arcs on 24 and Criminal Minds. In 2019 she was a Series Regular on the NBC series Bluff City Law. In 2024 she was seen in the Hulu limited series Death and Other Details opposite Mandy Patinkin. In the same year she also returned to the New York theatre scene in the critically lauded play STILL opposite Tim Daly.

    A graduate of Northwestern University and The Yale School of Drama, Jayne resides in the Berkshires with husband and fellow actor Michel Gill.

  • Charlie Reid is an actor and painter from Diego Martin, Trinidad and Tobago. Select theatre: Gemini, Off-Broadway and the US premiere of See You at the New Ohio Theatre. Training: Hofstra University, The Neighborhood Playhouse, The Freeman Studio. Love to Wyatt, Jinx, and the rest of the True Art team! www.charliereidactor.com

  • Fiona is a New York-based actor, originally from Dallas, TX. NYC Credits: Confederates (Signature Theatre Company), Big Hunk O’ Burnin’ Love (Roundabout Theatre Company), Three Texas Women (Teatro Latea), The Bacchae (La MaMa). Regional: All My Sons (Hartford Stage), A Midwinter Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Dallas), Easter (Undermain Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theatre Center). Film: Plano (dir. Danya Taymor, NYTimes-Featured). Education: The Juilliard School MFA Acting (Group 50), NYU Tisch BFA Acting. University productions include: Dogville (dir. Robert O’Hara), Twelfth Night (dir. Peter Francis James), F***ing A, The Effect, The Cherry Orchard. www.fionarobberson.com

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

  • Jessica's plays have been produced/workshopped around the country and include BOCA (Barrington Stage Company (BSC), GableStage, Act II Playhouse, and Florida Rep in 2025), A Wake on Chappaquiddick (Cape Cod Theatre Project, New Georges), Andromeda (The Barrow Group, Berkshire Playwrights Lab), Better than Chocolate  (Juilliard), Online (Great Barrington Public Theater), and Truth or Consequences (The Directors Company, DR2). She thanks The Director's Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, and the team that previously developed True Art: Alysia Reiner, Amelia Pedlow, Patrick Edgar, Stuart Zagnit, and director Julie Kramer.

    Jessica has received commissions from Araca Group, Killer Films and BSC, and conducted research for Spielberg / Hanks'Masters of the Air on Apple+ for John Orloff. She has written forBerkshire Magazine andNY Magazine, including a feature on her stint as Anthony Weiner’s Policy Director in his run for mayor. Jessica is a two-time recipient of the Lecomte du Noüy award for emerging playwrights. She was Writer-in-Residence at The Juilliard School and Edith Wharton's The Mount and graduated from Northwestern and Juilliard. She dedicates this play to its biggest advocate, Diane Provenz.

  • Michelle was awarded a residency earlier this summer for her fist play IODINE at The Adams Theater, which she also directed. 

    Upcoming: THE SHOT, Ten Chimneys (November) and Playmakers Rep (January) starring Sharon Lawrence. 

    Last season: THE STONES (American premiere), Great Barrington Public Theater, THE SHOT, New Jersey Rep, The Whidbey Center for the Performing Arts. Michelle created and directed BRING BACK THE MOVIES starring Lauren Ambrose, David Rasche, Karen Allen and Jayne Atkinson at The Daniel Arts Center (The Berkshires). 

    Recent productions include THE SHOT, NJ Rep, United Solo Festival (Winner: Best performance, Best production, Audience favorite), Great Barrington Public Theatre, SHE/HER (writer/performer) PS21 and The Edinburgh Theatre Festival. THE WAVERLY GALLERY (with Tina Packer), Shakespeare and Co, as well as productions in Los Angeles and elsewhere. She has had a long career as an actor and has written ten studio screenplays and leads a woman's writing group, The Long Table. www.michellejoyner.com

  • DTF: Dig, Queen of the Night, Wait Until Dark, Scarecrow, Thirst.  Previous designs with: Goodspeed Musicals, Signature Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Geva Theatre Center, Two River Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, People’s Light, Everyman Theatre, Miami New Drama, Resident Ensemble Players at UD, Weston Theater, Primary Stages, Red Bull Theater, Fiasco Theater, Tectonic Theater Project, The New Victory Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Lincoln Center Education, York Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Penguin Rep, Shadowland Stages, IBEX Puppetry, Trusty Sidekick, A$AP Rocky, Sotheby’s, 2020 Summer Olympics, Big Apple Circus, National Geographic. www.cjswaderdesign.com

  • Barbara is pleased to be back at DTF where she designed such shows as Theresa Rebeck’s Way of the World, Outside Mullingar, Mousetrap, Dial M For Murder. Other designs include Morning’s At Seven, The Show-Off (Peccadillo Theatre), Crumbs From the Table of Joy (Juilliard School), It’s a Wonderful Life, Child's Christmas in Wales (Irish Repertory), A Thousand Pines (Westport Country Playhouse), The Saintliness of Margery Kempe (Duke Theatre), Doctor’s Dilemma (Peterborough Players), Disgraced, Venus Rising (Northern Stage), Widowers' Houses (TACT Theatre/Gingold Theatrical), Heartbreak House (Gingold Theatrical), Soldier (HERE Theatre), Trip to Bountiful, The Seafarer, Driving Miss Daisy (Capital Repertory), Clybourne Park (Barrington Stage), Tenderly, To Kill A Mockingbird, Raisin in the Sun (Weston Playhouse). She designed 43 shows at Pearl Theatre Company (NYC) which included Taste of Honey, Uncle Vanya, Figaro, Vieux Carre, Bald Soprano. Recipient of Princess Grace Award for her Pearl Theatre designs. www.barbarabellcostumedesign.com

  • Patricia is based in New York and her work has been seen Off-Broadway, on National Tours, and in regional theatres across the country. Off-Broadway credits include: How Alfo Learned to Love, Broken, Splintered Souls, Fidelity Futurestage at New World Stages, Because I Can, and Safety. Tricia was a part of the artistic team for The Elf on the Shelf, A Christmas Musical National Tour and The Gazillion Bubble Show National Tour. Her regional theatre credits include her work at: Berkshire Theatre Group, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Cape Rep Theatre, and Skyline Theatre Company. Tricia has worked as the Associate Lighting Designer for the Broadway and all domestic and international productions of Jersey Boys, as well as, served as the Associate Lighting Designer on Broadway’s Pirate Queen, Freeman of Color, and the Broadway and all touring productions of Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays. She has assisted many designers on Broadway productions both in and out of town. Tricia has been a United Scenic Artist member since receiving her MFA in Lighting Design from University of California San Diego.

  • Joey is a New York based designer, who designs lighting, projection, and scenery. Joey has designed over 150 productions in NYC, regionally, and abroad. Recent lighting:What the Constitution Means to Me (Hangar Theatre), La tragédie de Carmen (Stony Brook), Romeo and Juliet (NAATCO Off-Broadway), No Child (Kitchen Theatre Co), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Choir Boy (Le Petit Light/Set), The Rape of Lucretia (Boston Lyric Opera), Awful Event (Baryshnikov Arts Center.) Recent projection work:The Wanderers (Roundabout), Good Vibrations (Houston Ballet), Sunken Cities Exhibit (Virginia Museum of Fine Art),Wet Brain (Projection Engineer). Joey creates and engineers video systems for on/off Broadway, museums, and installations. MFA Yale School of Drama. Joey is an Associate Professor in Design at BerkleeNYC, and a lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and NYU Tisch.

    www.joeymoro.com

    www.moro.media

  • DTF: Nine productions including Private Lives, Baskerville, andThe Pavilion. Off-Broadway: The Wanderers (Roundabout); I Was Most Alive With You, Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons);The Killer, Measure for Measure (Theatre for a New Audience); The Fears (at Signature); Actually (MTC); Hindle Wakes (The Mint); Jackie (Women's Project). Regional: Little Women (Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep); A Christmas Carol (Guthrie, Composer); Our Daughters, Like Pillars (Huntington); Macbeth, Hamlet, Rear Window (Hartford Stage); At the Wedding (Studio Theatre); Ken Ludwig's The Hound of the Baskervilles (Alabama Shakespeare); A View from the Bridge (Long Wharf); Amerikin (The Alley); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Capital Rep); Intelligence (Arena); Steel Magnolias (Theatre Aspen, Cleveland Play House, Guthrie).

    Recognition: Drama Desk, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry Award, Bessie Award, Premios ACE 2012, NEA/TCG Career Development Grant, Meet the Composer Grant, and several Lortel nominations. Education: Harvard University, Yale School of Drama. www.janeshaw.com

  • Judy Bowman has been casting with DTF since 2009. RECENT THEATER: Incendiary (Woolly Mammoth), Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong (NY, PCS & tours), A Christmas Carol (McCarter), No Child (Kitchen Theatre Co), The Great Leap (Cleveland Play House), Sharon Playhouse, Palm Beach Dramaworks, etc. TV/FILM: Hallmark’s Redemption in Cherry Springs, Big.

    Dogs (Amazon), One Moment with Danny Aiello, Separation, Hurricane Bianca, Lost Cat Corona, Gold Star. Artios Award nominee for Best Webseries Casting, PT Barnum Award recipient. judybowmancasting.com

  • Broadway: Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Off-Broadway: Ibsen’s Ghost, Dig, The Confession of Lily Dare Primary Stages); Belfast Girls (Irish Repertory Theater); Hangmen, On the Shore of the Wide World (Atlantic Theater Company); Privacy, Julius Caesar (Public Theater); This Space Between Us, Molly Sweeney (Keen Company); By the Way Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre); Eureka Day (Colt Coeur); Superstitions, The Ding Dongs, Is Edward Snowden Single? (The Pool Plays) Select Regional: Hartford Stage Company, Dorset Theatre Festival, Oklahoma City Rep, George Street Playhouse, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Yale Repertory Theatre. Avery holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama, and a BFA from Hofstra University.

SCHEDULE

WEEK ONE: 

FRIDAY, August 23 - 7:30 PM (PREVIEW) 

*SATURDAY, August 24 - 7:30 PM (OPENING NIGHT) 

SUNDAY, August 25 - 2:00 PM 

WEEK TWO

WEDNESDAY, August 28 - 2:00 PM 

WEDNESDAY, August 28 - 7:30 PM 

THURSDAY, August 29 - 7:30 PM

FRIDAY, August 30 - 7:30 PM 

SATURDAY, August 31 - 2:00 PM

SATURDAY, August 31 - 7:30 PM 

SUNDAY, September 1 - 2:00 PM

WEEK THREE

WEDNESDAY, September 4 - 2:00 PM 

WEDNESDAY, September 4 - 7:30 PM 

THURSDAY, September 5 - 7:30 PM

FRIDAY, September 6 - 7:30 PM 

SATURDAY, September 7 - 2:00 PM


NEWSROOM


ADVISORY: True Art Contains Mild Adult Language

RUNTIME: 2 Hours with a 15-Minute Intermission

True Art is produced by Dorset Theatre Festival.

The 2024 Main Stage Season is Sponsored By:
The Dorset Inn & Barrows House Inn & Restaurant

True Art is Sponsored by:
Bill Sterns & Wenke Thoman
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Support for the 47th season is provided by the Rodgers Family Foundation, The James H. & Irene M. Hunter Charitable Trust, and the members of the Festival’s World Premiere Circle.

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